Neuquen and Mendoza, Argentina

WARNING: Matt goes on for ages about wine in this blog!

And so the wine adventure begins...first stop Bodega Chacra in the Rio Negro region of Patagonia.

Matt: I was SO excited about visiting Chacra. I'd tried their amazing Pinot Noirs twice before, but it was nigh on impossible to find out anything about them - it was all a bit cloak and dagger! I thought I'd never have the chance to find out more... However, owner Piero Incisa della Rocchetta very kindly invited us to stay at the vineyard and have a look around this most remote outpost of winemaking.

We were lucky enough to stay in their guest apartment. It was an immense luxury after dorms.

Sarah: Matt can occasionally be very useful!

After a long day on the road we tucked in to a couple of rather nice reds, compliments of Chacra, and watched the beautiful sunset over the vineyard (our back garden). At night there were so many stars that we could clearly see the Milky Way.

We woke to a beautiful sunrise and met some of our four-legged neighbours...

The 'necessary' wine-tasting...

Matt: Piero's amazing right-hand lady, Gianina, was our host for the day and she walked us through the vineyards to the winery (top picture) to meet winemaker Marite, and taste a full line-up of the wines. Well... without going into too much detail, I think they are outstanding and would give my right arm for a case of the top two Pinot Noirs (not cheap, but worth every penny). By way of a quick plug, they produce a brilliant range of entry-level wines called 'Barda' which you can buy in the UK for around £10 per bottle. Do it!

After a truly great morning, we had to rush to Neuquen airport at breakneck speed to catch a flight to Mendoza. This meant dealing with Aerolineas again, which is without doubt the most shoddy airline we have ever dealt with. After being promised to be credited the next flight we took (after the 3 cancelled ones from Ushuaia), they explained that their system wasn't quick enough to process the refund against the flight to Mendoza before the plane was due to leave. "Go see the office in Mendoza. They'll sort it out for you..." they said, before charging our card...

Next up was the long awaited Mendoza! 

Sarah: Before the wine extravaganza began, we saw the sights (which were also great to see)!

The tempting Central Market... 

Sarah reads from the famous texts of The Lonely Planet at a local poet's corner...

This chap was very clearly an optimist...

And then it was time to visit some vineyards...

Matt: Right, I'll try and keep this quick... The first stop was to see the powerhouse of Argentinian wine, Trapiche. I've been collecting their single vineyard wines for years and I was as excited about this visit as anything else on our trip. Seriously...! We were treated to an amazing personal tour and tasting by Gustavo Arroyat and Luciano Rudman. What an afternoon!

The restored original winery, built in the late 1800s, where the top labels are produced...

Ultimately it was a fantastic visit and the wines were superb (particularly the single vineyard Malbecs! Mmm....).

The next day, we decided a bike ride would be in order after consuming so much wine. It just so happened that we cycled through the wine region of Lujan de Cuyo, south of Mendoza, via three wineries...

...and an Absinthe producer!!! Our cycling/slurping companion for the day was the awesome Anne from Germany (on the right), who we were to bump into again a few days later...

After these, it was detox all the way into the Andes for some exercise as we trekked, abseiled and zip-lined across the Mendoza River high above the city...

 We've got some cracking pictures of the zip-lining on CD that we'll get up soon. With a top speed of 50 mph!!! it was an amazing experience. Needless to say, we were dog-tired at the end of it...

With an early evening bus up t'north booked for the next day, there was still time to taste a few more wines. We headed back to Lujan to visit another heavyweight, Luigi Bosca.

Matt: I'd only tried one wine from Luigi Bosca before so I was really intrigued, particularly as the estate has such a great reputation. The wines were outstanding (including some really unusual blends and varieties), and I had a very interesting (i.e. nerdy) chat about their experiments with Chinese and Russian oak - a first, as far as I know? Thanks to the kind Soledad for organising a top visit...

With that, it was time to head back to catch our coach to Tucuman. It turned out that we were such fine company on the bicycle trip, Anne decided to join us for what proved to be an absolutely awesome road trip...